MCh orthopaedic

A shocking news came in recently for some doctors when the Maharashtra Medical Council (MMC) barred 21 doctors across the state from exhibiting their PG degrees obtained from a so-called American university. The council has further termed such courses to be ‘questionable’.
The administrative body purported that the institute has been charging lakhs to grant advanced medical degrees within a short span of time and without any first-hand training.

Taking a harsh step, the MMC has suspended the registration of a Pune surgeon for allegedly mediating between this university and the aspirants from the state. One of the renowned hospitals in Pune is also under question for conducting examinations on behalf of this university. The surgeon said in a defending statement that it was unfair on the part of the MMC to suspend him as he had a limited role in this. He was only invigilating the exams on the request of the hospital.
An official from the MMC said, “We have asked the doctors to eliminate the mention of these degrees in their practice as these courses do not have any recognition from the MCI.” He further mentioned that some of these exams were held in five-star hotels and the course fee started from Rs 5 lakh onwards.
Some doctors who are the certificate holders from the institute spoke in an interview saying that they felt “baited” after enrolling for some of the courses.
A Nagpur-based orthopedician told that he had enrolled with this institute for a supplementary degree, despite having a PG degree from a government medical college. He further stated that they were called in for a 3-day training which included lectures by senior doctors and also some experts from abroad. This was followed by an online exam. The certificate for the course called ‘MCh (orthopedics)’ arrived in 5-6 months although the duration of the course was one year. It is worth mentioning here that the real ‘MCh degree’ granted in some of India’s top medical colleges for disciplines such as neurology, oncology, is a super-speciality course of three years.